We left the hotel this morning and headed toward the Tjapukai Cultural Center. The tribe of Aborigines nearest to Cairns are the Tjapukai, and their center was our first stop. Before we got there, I was fearing the corniest, golly-like embarrassing show on the planet. Fortunately, I was wrong. There were several stages, the first one, and really the best, had a guy playing and explaining how to play a didgeridoo. We've been hearing them a lot and had a lot of questions. 1.) how do you make the noise - vibrating you lips 2.) how do you make other odd noises while playing - sticking your tongue out at various moments and various angles 3.) how do you keep playing on and on without breathing - you DO breath, just while you make the odd noises, you breath in (somehow). We saw a performance about their creation myths, about different weapons, about dances, and about local foodstuffs. A lot of what they eat would be poisonous raw, but they soak the nuts/seeds/ whatever in the river for three days, then when cooked, you don't die. Here's a few photos.
After our boomerang shooting attempts (I was told I throw "like a girl" - good thing dinner doesn't depend on my shooting) we went over to the gondolas that left the valley floor, and eventually ended up in Kuranda. Here's a few more photos. The sharp rise and cold air caused it to rain on the upslope, and caused it to be a bit damp in our gondola. We stopped a couple of times. The first was at "Red Peak" where we had a ranger tell us about the forest and a few creatures. Here's a basket fern.
Once we got to Kuranda, we had lunch (WONDERFUL meat pies) and strolled around town a bit.
We decided to wander a bit into the forest again, stopping at a Flying Fox rehabilitation station -
The fern like plants (proto ferns?) have thorns on the back of their leaves in order to cling to trees and make it through the forest floor to the light above. They looked very much like the type of plants I imagine dinosaurs munched on - this is one of the oldest rain forests on earth.
At three we went to the Kuranda Rail Station and took the Kuranda train from the top back to the valley floor. Views from the train are spectacular - a few that are as good as I could get.
We got back to the hotel at 6, got our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight, then wandered into Palm Cove for dinner. Tomorrow - off to Ayers Rock.
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